EFFECT OF FEEDING POULTRY DIETS SUPPLEMENTED WITH RAPESEED MEAL AS A PRIMARY PROTEIN SOURCE TO JUVENILE AND ADULT MEAT BREEDER GENOTYPES

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Abstract
A factorial experiment was conducted, with a total of 3168 birds from four commercial meat parent genotypes, to study the cumulative effects of feeding soybean meal (SM) and rapeseed meal (RSM) as protein sources in both juvenile and adult breeder diets. Averaged over all genotypes, general performance was equivalent for all combinations of SM and RSM in the juvenile and adult diets although there was some evidence of second order interactions involving genotypes with juvenile and adult dietary combinations. These interactions affected egg production and related traits such as feed efficiency. It was concluded that some genotypes exhibit a greater responsiveness to rapeseed meal diets than others and that juvenile and adult diets using a combination of different sources of dietary protein supported equal or better performance compared with the same dietary protein source used throughout both periods. Key words: Meat breeders, rapeseed meal, canola, poultry, diets